The present invention relates generally to refrigerated coolers and most particularly to an improved grate supporting milk container caddies in forced air cooler of the type adapted for use in schools as a milk cooler.
Forced air coolers are commonly used in schools to chill milk containers for self-service access. Students passing through the cafeteria line reach in to the cooler through a door opening on one side of the cooler or through either of a pair of door openings provided on opposite sides on the cooler to accommodate two lines of students passing by the cooler. The door/doors when open provide access to the interior of the cooler wherein the milk containers are stored. In conventional forced air coolers, the refrigeration system includes an evaporator/fan system adapted to blow refrigerated air into the uppermost region of the cooler interior across the top of the cooler and collect return air from the bottom region of the cooler.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,196,632, Buffington discloses a forced air cooler including a cabinet defining a relatively long and relatively low rectangular chamber for chilling containers and having an upper portion of the front wall of the cabinet which is removable to provide access to the chilled product within the chamber. An evaporator and circulating fan are disposed along the back wall of the chamber. Refrigerated air discharges horizontally across the top of the chamber towards the front and the opposite end walls of the chamber and returns, for cooling and recirculation, to a fan inlet which is centrally located at the lower portion of the back wall of the chamber. Thus, the refrigerated air passes outwardly across the top of the chamber, thence downwardly along the front and side walls and back to the fan inlet. In the forced air circulation pattern thus established, the refrigerated air chills the product stacked within the chamber.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,682, Smith et al. disclose a forced air cooler defining a rectangular enclosure having a door in the front wall and top thereof for providing self-service access to individuals, such as for example students passing through a school cafeteria line, to individual service beverage containers, such as milk cartons and the like. A plenum housing an evaporator/fan system is disposed in the uppermost region of the cooler atop the chilled enclosure housing the beverage containers and a condenser/compressor system disposed beneath the floor of and exteriorly of the chilled enclosure. An air return air duct is provided along the back wall of the enclosure with its inlet opening to the lower portion of the enclosure and its outlet to the fan plenum. Refrigerated air discharges horizontally outwardly along the length of the plenum toward the front wall of the enclosure and flows generally downwardly to and down the front wall of the enclosure to the floor thereof, thence along the floor toward the back wall of the enclosure and thence upwardly through the air return duct and to return to the fan plenum. A wire grid is placed atop the floor of the cooler to support the baskets of milk containers off the floor of the cooler such that an air flow gap is provided superadjacent the cooler floor and beneath the milk containers. A wire fence, functioning to space the product away from the front wall, is mounted by means of brackets and screws to the inner surface of the front wall of the cooler superadjacent the bottom wire grid.
Although the fence and bottom wire grid disclosed in Smith et al. are in combination effective to space the product stored within the chamber away the front wall and floor of the cabinet, respectively, their presence complicates cleaning. Before the floor and lower portion of the front wall of the cabinet of smith et al. maybe cleaned, it is necessary to remove the brackets mounting the fence to the wall and thereafter lift the fence and the bottom gird from the cooler. Therefore, to facilitate cleaning of the cabinet, there exists a need for a bottom grid and fence arrangement which merely sits within the chamber rather than be bracket mounted to the wall.